Garden in town

At the moment we still live in town, in a flat, but one day we will have our dream home. The question is just when ;)

In the meantime we are actually lucky enough to have two balconies. We've been three and a half years in that flat, and every year I have been gardening a little more. I used to believe that I could not take care of plants. My inside plants seem happy enough and they are surviving, my outside plants also give me great joy.

In our Advent Calendar we had gotten flower bulbs. I did plant them in the big balcony planter that my father-in-law made for us a good five years ago. It is sturdy and practical. Anyway, the whole 24 bulbs did grow and bloom. It was a lovely sight on the balcony!

And this year I made a pallet vertical garden (inspiration on Pinterest of course!) - I was just really hoping it wouldn't end up being a "Pinterest Fail" ;)

First step: we acquired a pallet.

 

Then we shopped for: soil, plants and a special gardening fabric (we got on that is used for play sand-boxes). And we got on with our work. My oldest is in the Kindergarten, but I still have T. to help me :)

 Afterwards we started filling it. I had bought two bags of 40L of soil, but that wasn't enough! We did need another 40L bag. I did leave the pallet lying for a couple of days to give the plants some time to "settle" down, but it was highly unpractical as I use this balcony for my laundry and had too little space left, so I did bring it up with my husband's help.

 On the same day, T. and I did fill a few pots and seeded some radish, carrots and flowers.

 And now the following pictures are what our little balcony garden looks like:

Basil, potato plants and a little rose plant (this one survived both winter AND a bad insect infestation)

Our carrots and flowers growing slowly. I need to space the carrots now.

My mother-in-law brought us a tomato plant

Forest strawberries

We had our first harvest of radishes yesterday. There are many more to come.

 

The pallet garden now has a few more flowers and I got moss from my mother-in-law's garden to prevent the soil from falling out too easily.

So even in the middle of town, we can enjoy a little bit of gardening, self-grown veg and pretty flowers. My son, T., is particularly happy. He loves being outdoor and taking care of plants!

 Edit at 18h: here are our newest additions!

Rainpipes flowerpots with strawberry plants ^^

Unusual Advent calendar

My mother-in-law prepared us an unusual calendar this year:

 24 small boxes

 filled with tiny wooden decoration and one flower bulb! I love the idea! We are supposed to plant them every day and hopefully in the spring we will have 24 beautiful flowers :)

 and here's the surprise - when I planted the first 12 (all at once instead of one a day), I found one small raddish and a teeny tiny potatoe!!

Felt Garden

The last two posts have shown you what cuddly toys I had made for my nieces L. and M. for their birthdays (both summer girls!). I like both toys, but I never intended them as the "main" present.

Actually the main present is this: a felt garden. Two to be precise. I mixed up several ideas seen online.

In each garden the girls will find two radish, two baby carrots, two leeks, two flowers, two mushrooms and a small doll. One doll has long straight-ish hair, this is L. , the other one had shorter and curvier hair, this is M. :)

I will soon be working on making such a garden for my children too, they've been asking for it and they love planting and plucking vegs and flowers. How do you like it?

Terrarium

I have talked about Pinterest before, haven't I? Well, one of the many marvellous things I have noticed on there is the Terrarium. I loved the idea of making a mini garden in a vase (although originally I wanted it in an over-sized fish bowl).

One needs:

 

* Moss

* Cactus soil
* Stones, pebbles, beads
* Plants

* A nice transparent container.

Starting with a generous layer of moss, you then add the pebbles and stones on top of it.

Then you need to add your soil and your plants. Et voilà!

It made a perfect Christmas present for my parents-in-law who love plants :)